Category Archives: Viva!

‘It’s devastating’. End of GM in Ohio town as Trump fails to bring back midwest jobs

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Closing of Chevrolet plant is latest blow in a slow, painful decline in Lordstown – an area that has suffered more than most from the outsourcing of jobs overseas

For years, the General Motors plant in Lordstown, Ohio, employed 8,000 workers in the Mahoning valley.

In a rust belt region that has become synonymous with industrial decline, following the closure of its once mighty steel mills in the 1970s, the presence of the Chevrolet factory in Lordstown, and its well-paid manufacturing jobs, was particularly important.

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In Bolsonaro’s burning Brazilian Amazon, all our futures are being consumed | Eliane Brum

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The rainforest might seem a remote place, but it is the heart of the planet – and it is under attack as never before

The Amazon is the centre of the world. Right now, as our planet experiences climate collapse, there is nowhere more important. If we don’t grasp this, there is no way to meet that challenge.

For 500 years, this has been a place of ruins. First with the European invasion, which brought a particularly destructive form of civilisation, the death of hundreds of thousands of indigenous men and women and the extinction of dozens of peoples. More recently, with the clearance of vast swaths of the forest and all life within it. Right now, in 2019, we are witnessing the beginning of a new, disastrous chapter. The area of trees being cleared has surged this year. In July, the deforestation rate was an area the size of Manhattan every day, a Greater London every three weeks. This month, fires are incinerating the Amazon at a record rate, almost certainly part of a scorched-earth strategy to clear territory. Why is this happening now? Because of a change in power.

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Facing farmer anger, Trump scrambles Cabinet to brainstorm on biofuel policy: sources

No strategy, no thought except wanting to look good today U.S. President Donald Trump, faced with mounting anger in the farm belt over policies that allow oil refineries to use less corn-based ethanol, summoned Cabinet members on Thursday to discuss ways to boost biofuel demand, four sources familiar with the matter said.

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Far-right violence is on the rise. Where is the outrage? | Owen Jones

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Politicians and media outlets seem happy to fuel the hate-filled ideologies of a once-despised and tiny minority

Mohammed Saleem was murdered by a terrorist, and yet you’ve probably never even heard of him. It was April 2013, and the 82-year-old was walking home from evening prayers at a mosque in Small Heath, Birmingham. A Ukrainian neo-Nazi terrorist – who had bombed three mosques – stabbed him three times from behind. “He was a very beautiful, educated man who empowered all of his five daughters – and his sons as well – to pursue education, and loved and appreciated everything Britain gave him,” says Maz Saleem, his daughter. “I’ve spent six years tirelessly campaigning for him to be recognised in a mainstream platform.”

(July 22, 2011)  Utøya island and in Oslo, Norway

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Leaked emails show Ukip leader comparing Muslims to Nazis

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Richard Braine accused of stoking tensions after also saying there are no ‘moderate Muslims’

Richard Braine, the new Ukip leader, has been accused of whipping up religious tensions and anti-Muslim prejudice after leaked emails showed he argued that people should no more want Muslims to settle in their country than Nazis.

Braine, who won the leadership after a campaign in which he expressed anti-Islam views, also suggested that non-Muslims needed to help Muslims to “cast out their demon” and argued there was no such thing as “moderate Muslims”.

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